Category Archives: My Studio

Post navigation

We’ve been in our new home for a month now. It’s smaller than our old house, but very nice. We’ve unpacked all our boxes, and put nearly everything away. Tomorrow I plan to haul all the cardboard boxes back to the moving company so someone else can reuse them. It still doesn’t seem like home yet. I wonder how long that will take? It feels kind of like we’re house sitting someone else’s place.

I promised you a studio tour and a giveaway. The studio tour comes first. Hang on till the end and you’ll find out how to enter the giveaway for a free artisan bracelet!

My studio isn’t 100% moved into yet. There are a few small boxes on the floor, the closet is a mess and not all the pictures have been hung. But I decided not to wait any longer to share some pictures. I can always do an update later.

We’ll start at the door of the studio. See that guy there? He just sort of followed me to this new house, helped me install a whole wall of shelving and even gave me the “Jeweler Parking Only” sign. I think he’s a keeper.😉

To the right of the door are some IKEA spice racks that are the perfect size for my ceramic glazes. The white box on the far right is a photo cube, which helps diffuse light and reduce shadows on my jewelry photographs. Next to the photo cube is my desk. I didn’t take any pictures of it, because it’s become the surface on which I’ve laid all the stuff I’ve unpacked, but haven’t found a space for yet.

Here’s a closer view of the “spice racks”. Small bottles fit two deep and pint jars fit nicely, too.

My orchids are happy in their new home on my studio window sill.

The next picture is the best part of the new studio. As I mentioned in my last post, we took most of the shelving that had been in our previous living room and moved it into my new studio. It is a dream come true to have a place for all my metalsmithing equipment, polymer clay supplies, enameling, beading and ceramic supplies. It’s not a big room, but the wall of shelves makes it all possible!

The wooden boxes are from IKEA, as are the shelving units. I keep all my beads, except my art beads, in these boxes, sorted by color. The white, plastic 5 drawer units hold all my metal supplies, such as brass beads, copper wire, silver chain, etc. The other shelf of plastic units holds some of my clay supplies. The wooden earring rack was made by Kristi Bowman’s husband. It folds up flat and is super handy to bring to shows.

The last picture shows the wall behind the door, where I hung up some certificates of appreciation from my 30 teaching career The wall looked kind of bare, so I also hung up a fused glass wall hanging and a collage with lovely calligraphy about the value of friends. Both these are handmade. Just around the corner, to the left, is a handmade ceramic wall vase by Marsha Neal Minutella.So now you’ve had the tour and it is time for the giveaway. I’m thinking of this as a kind of reverse house-warming gift. Lots of neighborhood people brought us gifts when we moved in, so now I’m turning the tables and giving this bracelet away, as a gift, in celebration of our new home and this new chapter in our lives.

The focal bead is handmade lampwork by Paradise Beads. The tab shaped purple flower bead is by Sue Beads and is also lampwork glass. The lilac colored bead is handmade ceramic by White Clover Kiln. There are also a sprinkling of top-drilled pearls, 2 Lepidolite beads and Czech glass bird beads.

Here’s how to be entered for my house-warming giveaway:

You can get one entry for commenting on this post.

You can get one additional entry each time you share this post on your choice of social media. After you’ve shared, come back here and enter where you shared it and a link to it. Make a separate comment each time you share. If you list multiple shares in one comment, it will only count as one.

Please include contact info, so I can easily let you know if you won. If I can’t connect with you without having to search for contact info, I will skip on to the next entry.

This is, for the most part, a reprint of a post I did for the Art Jewelry Elements blog. I had hoped to continue my organizing efforts and have more to add to this today, but I ran out of time. If you are reading this on Saturday, I am vending at a show today. And well, you know how that goes. Preparation for shows takes over everything else you may have hoped to accomplish.

But I’ve got a good start on the clean-up effort and I’ll work toward finishing up after the show. I’ll post my progress as I move forward.

If you’ve been following my posts then you know that I’ve been experimenting with polymer clay and torch fired enameling recently. I’ve also been slowly adding a few metalsmithing techniques to my skill set. This is all wonderful except…. When I set my studio up in our spare bedroom I had mega-tons of beads, but no torches, hammers, enamels, polymer clay, pasta machine etc. Well you get the picture.

As I added more things that didn’t have a designated space, my computer desk got overwhelmed with junk tools, metal and clay. My computer got ousted to the living room, my studio floor became littered with papers, magazines and whatnot. Add this to the fact that I am not a naturally organized or orderly person and you have chaos!

It was getting so bad that I couldn’t even find space to work. I was becoming annoyed and thus began avoiding my studio. I finally had enough! That’s when I saw that Sharyl was hosting this blog hop! The timing was perfect. So I began burrowing out of the mess. Unfortunately I didn’t take “Before” pictures right away. The pictures I do have were taken about a week after I began Operation Studio Renewal. You know how things actually get worse before they get better? These pictures attest to that.

I’m not all done yet, but I thought I’d post some mid-project pictures, to show the progress so far and to help hold me accountable for finishing what I have started.

I’m actually typing this post at my desk, but here’s what it looked like near the start of the project.

And this evening it looks like this.

Here’s a daytime shot from earlier this week. I’ve got the polymer clay pasta machine on the left side of the desk. It can stay set up there, but out of the way.

The polymer clay and tools were scattered all about, but they are now nicely corralled on shelves to the left of the desk. Here’s what the shelves looked like before I went to work on them.

The shelves were not a complete disaster, like my desk was. They were somewhat organized, but I needed to make room for the polymer clay and enamels without having to invest in new shelving or expensive storage items.

Another goal I had was to reduce visual clutter, as well as physical clutter. I think I’ve accomplished both goals here.

Let’s start with the top shelf. My before picture shows that I had the same white plastic storage drawers up there initially, but they were all stacked at varying heights. And then there were smaller purple storage boxes stacked up on the right side of the shelf. Its hard to see in the before picture, but on the left side of the top shelf was also a round plastic jar of furnace glass beads.

I removed the purple boxes and the furnace glass and I spread out the white drawers so they are all the same height. Now the eye can rest on that shelf comfortably and not be jarred by all the conflicting heights, colors and storage boxes. The only non-white item now is a wood and papier-mâché diorama from Mexico that is on top of one of the storage drawers in the corner.

The 2nd shelf down is mostly empty right now, but that’s OK. I’m not done cleaning the whole studio yet and I might still need the space. One trick to give yourself extra space for smaller items is to use hanging wire baskets that hook onto the shelf above. You can see that I’ve used one of these above the second shelf.

I’m quite pleased with the 3rd shelf. I picked up a number of these inexpensive, white cardboard boxes at IKEA. They are a bit tedious to assemble, but they are sturdy, come in at least 3 sizes and are white, to go with the other things on the shelf, (though they come in colors too).

I moved all my polymer clay supplies into these boxes and used my trusty label machine to label each box. There is still extra room in the boxes for more, as I expand my stash.

Although I forgot to take a picture of it, I’ve also cleared out all the clutter that was on the floor by these shelves. One can now reach them without danger to life and limb!😉

I’ve also organized a shipping station for items purchased in my online shops. I used to keep padded envelopes, bubble wrap and tissue paper in baskets under my work table. Thank you cards were next to my work table. Business cards were on my antique printers cabinet, postal tape was in the kitchen. Oy vey! One of the cardinal rules of organizing is to put like with like. This is so much better!

You are probably curious about where I actually make my jewelry. I’ve just barely started organizing it, so it’s mostly still a wreck. But you will notice that I’ve cleared a small bit of real estate in the center of the table and even this little work space has re-sparked a creative drive in me that I welcome.

So that’s it for now. I’ll do an update when I finish the task. I look forward to visiting the other people’s blogs who joined this clean-up challenge. And I’d encourage you to do likewise, (see links below). I know I’ll pick up some cool organizing tips from them and that I’ll gather increased motivation to get this job done! Thanks Sharyl for hosting this challenge!

My husband got the idea that if we moved our furniture around a bit, I could have a room all to myself for my jewelry work and an office. So we moved his stuff out of the future bead room.

Moving the printer out of the new bead room.

Then we moved my things into the room, including the drawers from my antique Hamilton printers cabinet.

Drawers from my antique Hamilton printers cabinet.

Our dog, Chochi, supervised the move.

Chochi

The walls were a dull, light brown, so I decided they needed a fresh, light color that would make me feel cheery and peaceful. I scooted the furniture to the middle of the room, out in the hallway and into the master bedroom. Then I painted two of the walls a light turquoise blue.

It is hard to photograph yourself painting!

The next day my friend, who loves to paint rooms, came over and we finished the other two walls.

I get by with a little help from my friends.

Now I am slowly bringing my furniture back into the studio from the bedroom and hall. I’m organizing everything as I put it away. On one side of the room I have my bead table and it is pretty well organized now. The other side has my computer desk and some book shelves. That side still needs working on. But I think I’m far enough along to share some pictures with you.

Here’s my work table. The “parking” sign was a gift from my husband for Christmas!

All the art on the walls was done by family members or friends. It fills me with joy to be surrounded by their creativity. I haven’t hung everything yet. There are more photos by my husband, screen prints by my daughter and paintings by my brother. The painting on the right is by Angela Pierce.

The wooden boxes on the right are from IKEA. I plan to paint them white (furniture and storage painting is phase two of this project). I also plan to paint my bead table white.

My jewelry work table.

As you can see, I have labeled all the drawers. Can’t live without my label machine! The handmade vase above the boxes is filled with pussy willows and was a gift from the friend who helped me with the painting.

Wooden boxes from IKEA

The white shelves on my work table are actually shoe shelves from Fred Meyers (I think that is just an west coast store). They assemble easily and I use them all over the place. You’ll see them in my closet, as well.

Shelving on the work table.

The closet holds some of my other crafty interests: paper crafts, basketry, silk painting (dyeing) supplies. I used the shoe shelves to extend the storage on the shelf above the clothes railing. Two of my hand dyed silks are hanging to the right in the closet. If I have space, I’d like to hang them up on the studio walls.

The closet in my new studio.

My beloved Hamilton printers cabinet is to the left of my work table. I store all my art beads, pearls, gemstones, seed beads and crystals here. The painting above the cabinet is by Susan England. It is from our favorite get-away in Costa Rica. One of my silks hangs to the right of the cabinet and I wove the basket that sits on the floor.

My Hamilton printers cabinet.

The last picture I’m going to share is the light box where I photograph my jewelry for posting in my online shop. This light box is just the greatest thing! I can now take pictures in all light conditions!

My desk and computer area are still a mess. I’ll share pictures of that side of the studio when I’ve got it all organized and clean.

Photo light box.

I hope you enjoyed this little studio tour. I welcome your comments, suggestions or questions!

BTW: Disorderly Conduct

…in the studio

If you read the interview with me on the Pacific Northwest ArtFire Guild Blog, it will come as no surprise to you that my work surface is a constant disaster. I usually have numerous projects going at once. And I’d rather design jewelry than clean up after myself. I did include a studio picture with the interview and it looks half-way decent, but I neatened things up before taking that picture.

So I’m coming clean about not being clean. Here’s how the studio really looks!

How do I even find what I am working on???? Here’s a close up of the mess on the left.

Messy table top with handmade jewelry in progress.

Here’s the little blue bowl that is on the upper right in the picture above.

Work in progress

These bracelets were commissioned by a friend’s mother. Her mother had bought a similar bracelet from me and received compliments from her friends. So she decided she wanted to gift her friends with matching bracelets. The only problem was that I couldn’t find the exact same black and pink floral beads – I only had 1 left in my stash. These are similar and I hope they will be OK, (I do like the originals better, though).

I’ve finished one bracelet and just have to add the clasp to the second one.

Black and pink custom bracelet

Here are a pair of heart earrings I am working on. I don’t like that extra silver ring above the heart. It looks too gangly to me. I may remove it. What do you think?

Heart and lampwork earring (Lampwork by Radiant Mind)

And last of all, I’m already laying out ideas for a heart necklace. The photo makes the ceramic heart look blue, but it is really lavender and it pairs well with this lampwork bead, which I’ve had for a long time, (unfortunately I no longer remember who made it).

Ceramic heart (by Bohulleybeads) and lampwork glass bead

Well now you have the truth of the matter. I make pretties while I act disorderly!

New Metal Components From

Melinda Orr

I’ve recently been getting to know Melinda Orr on Facebbook and some of her wonderful metal components are on my bead table today. However, they were just in a heap on my bead table, so I decided to share them with you in a little more creative manner.

To be truthful, I had intended to show you a pair of earrings using two of the patina’ed rectangles. However, I decided that I didn’t like the way that they turned out (too long and bulky) so I took them apart. Back to the drawing board! Hopefully I will soon have something to show for my efforts!

BTW: New Goodies

I went to the Gem Faire in Tacoma last Friday and I have all kinds of new goodies on my bead table now. I’m fairly cautious at Gem Faire, because many of the gem dealers don’t have store fronts or websites and I see a lot of gems that look dubious to me. One booth had beads that were obviously glass, but were billed as quartz, (but had garish bright non-quartz colors). Other dealers looked quite reputable. I really didn’t need any stones any way. They have good deals on Swarovski crystals and I picked up several strands. The oval beads (below) are Chinese crystal. The rest are Swarovskis.

Swarovski and Chinese crystals.

Unicorn Beads always has a booth at Gem Faire and they have great deals on their discontinued lines. Unicorne Beads specializes in handmade lampworked Boro (Borosilicate) glass. At a nearby booth, I also picked up one strand of moukite – my only gemstone purchase.

Unicorne Beads and moukite

Here’s a close up of some of the boro beads. Pretty, huh?

Unicorne Beads

I finished off my shopping spree with 4 feet of brass chain and 2 feet of copper chain. The ceramic pieces below are from Summers Studio and they arrived in the mail this week, too.

New chain and ceramic beads from Summers Studio

Now I can’t wait to get into the studio and start creating with all these new goodies.

BTW: New Goodies & New Jewelry

Kristi Bowman Components

OK, I admit it. I’m completely smitten with Kristi Bowman’s copper components. I already have a bunch that I haven’t yet made into jewelry, but when she had a sale last week, I had to get more! So here’s whats on my bead table today.

Copper components by Kristi Bowman Design

Whispers Necklace and Bracelet

I also have a necklace and bracelet set on my bead table. They are made of one of my favorite gemstones: Picasso jasper (aka Picasso marble). This grey stone has endlessly fascinating black lines which crisscross through it, like some crazy road map. It looks awesome with wine red garnets and a bit of metallic gleam from Thai Hill Tribes silver.